PBB eyes sites for new branches for 2014

Listed Philippine Business Bank (PBB) has started looking for new sites for its 2014 branch expansion as early as now, after realizing consistent growth in its profit from the moment it listed in the local bourse earlier this year.

Although it didn’t specify the locations it is eyeing, PBB said that it “is already identifying sites for 2014 opening,” after reporting a robust net income during the first three quarters of the year.

“This is part of the plan to continually service the SME [small and medium enterprise]market. The strong economic growth of the country has seen business increasing in the outlying cities as well,” PBB said.

In its financial report, the company said that its branch banking expansion strategy has been producing good results.

Total branches of the bank now stood at 91 with nine more branches to be opened within the year.

For the first three quarters of the year, PBB registered a net income of P1 billion, which is a 60-percent increase over the same period last year.

“The strong performance was propelled by the IPO [initial public offering]proceeds in February and the growth in the deposits supported in the lending activity. Treasury business continued to deliver as well with the favorable trading climate in the first half of the year,” the company said.

Total resources of the bank also climbed to the P44-billion mark, up 33 percent from the P33 billion of 2012.

Net interest income of PBB, on the other hand, grew by 58 percent from P778.07 million in the same period last year to P1.2 billion, while total net loan level at the end of September stood at P28.2 billion, up by almost 35 percent.

Total deposit growth of the bank showed a 28-percent rise from the September 2012 level of P26.4 billion to P33.8 billion, which was backed by the improvement in the ratio of low-cost to high-cost deposit and the special deposit account rate.

In the first half, PBB reported that it registered a net income of P794 million, up by 60 percent from the P497 million it earned in the same period last year.